Sales Tax Token Collector's Home Page

Visit Numismatics Lesser Known Past

Sales tax tokens (and other exonumismatic and
philatelic pieces used in the process of collecting sales
taxes) were used in several states, primarily in the Midwest,
South, and SouthWest, in the 1930s and 1940s. Although in some cases
they were legal until the early 1960s, for the most part they
were discontinued shortly after World War II. Except for occasional
political pieces opposing a proposed sales tax in one of the
few states still lacking one, the collecting field is closed
in the sense that no more tokens are being issued and none are
in public circulation. However, there continue to be new discoveries of
unknown pieces, major die varieties, a wide variety of
historical materials, and other items. With a few exceptions,
the quantity of any given token is almost uncirculated
condition is so great that tokens for a general collection
remain within easy financial reach.